I’m having a nightmare masking off the middle section of the forward part of a Tomcats canopy. The section I’m talking about is where it has the 2 joints meet at the bottom for support and in the middle is an oval. I can’t figure out how to cut out the mask for just those 2 small beams and keep the mask for the rest of the windscreen. The scale is 1/72. Any suggestions?
Freehand, pard… Freehand…
Really freehand, then would you reccommend doing the brace between the pilot and rio freehand or mask the clear off and airbrush that since it’s bigger?
Frankly, I don’t mask canopies… I really do prefer to freehand them entirely, or use decals… That said, if you still want to airbrush it, perhaps you could paint what you can easily, then mask that area after the initial shot is cured and shoot it separately instead of trying to get the canopy done in one step…
I like to paint the canopies with a brush, but I don’t like the edge that I get going freehand. Hans suggestion of masking sections that you can handle works nicely for me. I recently did a P-47 Razorback which has a lot of metal in the canopy. I masked the vertical framing and painted them. Then I removed that tape and masked the horizontal framing and did the same. After some work on the edges of the canopy, it looked pretty good. The windscreen was a little tougher. When you get to curved pieces to paint, you either need to cut your masking tape to shape, or purchase some artist’s thin masking tape that you can bend with the curved edge. For me the key has been the use of good blue painter’s masking tape. I do not get any bleed, which can ruin a delicate job, especially on clear parts. The last point is to take your time. Either work on the canopy as you progress with the model, or plan to take a few days to paint and mask the canopy at the end of the build. But give it a little time. The canopy is a critical feature. Rick.
Why don’t you post a pic of the problem area?The Tomcat does not have extensive canopy framing so free-hand with a good liner brush may be the answer!
I Use Tamiya tape when I mask canopies. I would cover it with strips of tape and carefully trim out the places you want to paint with a brand new # 11 blade. I tried freehanding but my hands aren`t that steady so I started doing it this way and it works well…for me anyway. The catch is you have to hold your work up in front of a good light source to see the molded lines through the tape.Cheaper than buying masks sets and cleaner than freehand in IMHO.
the other way which im going to try tonight on my tomcat windscreen, is to mask the whole thing, smooth it down with a toothpick or some such tool. then run over it lightly with the side of a pencil, like a rubbing of a grave stone, then carefully pull off the masking tape off and then trim the lines on a self healing matt. Replace Fresh cut masks. Coat with future. let dry for 24 hours then paint.
Another thing is that I paint canopies with acrylics rather than enamels… Anything that gets over onto the “glass” can be cleaned up with a chisel-cut wood toothpick…
Howdy!
My approach is to take good masking tape (like Tamiya) and cut thin strips out of it - 1mm or less. This way the strips get bendable sideways, to put it in a funny (?) way. Then I mask edges of the windows this way, almost always cutting the end of every strip at angle, so that the strips of tape don’t overlap. After the edges are done, I mask the centers of the window with a heavy coat of maskol. Airbrushing the frames is in my opinnion the better way of doing this. It is also good to put the canopy on permanently before painting, so you can fill the edges where necessary. Especially important on larger planes. After the canopy is masked, you can as well spray the interior color first, to simulate the frames being painted interior color from inside. I don’t think there are many people who can get frames as thin, as straight and as opaque two times in a row by freehand, so maybe it’s worth a try? I wish you good luck and have a nice day
Pawel
Another option is to not mask it… it takes quite awhile for acrylic paint to adhere to the clear parts and even then it never really does…
Get a scrap windscreen/clear part and experiment with this:
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make sure the part is smooth and polished - no scratches [very bad]
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paint it normally without masking [or a very rough masking job] with Acrylic paint, enamel and lacquers won’t work.
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don’t let the acrylic paint fully cure, you can, but it will be easier to remove if you don’t.
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cut around the frame with a sharp knife…
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scrape away the excess with a toothpick or other tool that won’t scratch [sometimes I’ll cut a chisel shape out of some spare sprue]
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done.
- I’ve found that using Vallejo primer & model air colors, some natural [synthetic does not work for some reason] turpentine will soften the paint and it will come up in strips…
** I have used laquers before but you need a very heavy undercoat of acrylic primer.
*** Vallejo Acrylics are the only paints I’ve ever tried as an undercoat
**** if you future your screens, do it after you paint the frames or your paint will adhere!
I’ve had some real nice results with this method,
Please note the important points: SCRAP, EXPERIMENT & ACRYLIC [:)]
-sean
I have never airbrushed a canopy. Always free hand with a good artists sable brush.
Pactra makes a 1/16th of an inch tape that is very good for this. Its far better than Tamiya at least for this purpose as it can by burnished down very tightly. In fact since its probably the only thing you might use it for (canopies) it will last a long time.
Personally I use MM enamels as they hold to the plastic better. If you use this technique and mask over acrylic it will pull the paint off the clear styrene. I usually do only one or two lines at a time and maybe take a week to do the whole canopy.
You think your canopy is tough…try the B-36![t$t]
My method of masking is to cut tiny strips of Tamiya masking tape and apply them one by one until I am able to cover the area I should be masking. Short stripe to form curves or very narrow ones (1mm) to follow the curves. This works for me.
I usually mask the whole thing and take a very sharp 11 blade and cut out the parts I want painted. Be careful to use very light pressure so you don’t mar the glass.
Am I the only one who does that?
Canopies use to frustrate me to no end as well but, after useing the precut masks there is no going back. When looking for a kit, I now make sure there is a precut mask available before I buy the model.
I noticed some people say to use acrylic paint when using a toothpick to clean up mistakes, but you can do the same with enamel paints. I let the paint set for a little bit and then dip the tip of a toohtpick in mineral spirits and scrape away the mistakes.
No sir, you are not! Ive tried several different methods and this works the best for me. Granted, it took me a little while to get good at it but now that I got it down, Ill never buy another canopy mask set again. They key to the whole deal is to use a new, sharp no.11 blade and, as you said , light pressure. Jet canopies , like the Tomcats, are a piece of cake doing it this way...hardly any frame work. Gonna do my Peacemakers canopy with this method…lotsa work with all those little windows but worth it in the end…save some money not buying the mask set!
I agree, masking sets are generally pretty hit and miss and not worth the money, occasionally save some time, but the results are never as good as hand masking…
did anyone mention to always cut around your mask before removing them, no matter what method you use?
-sean
I have had really good luck with masking canopies using liquid masking agents. My usual method is tape the flats (I like the tamiya tape), and to save headaches I use a fine tip paint brush to mask the curved surfaces with Microscale Ind. Micro-Mask. I used it almost exclusively to do the glass nose on an 1/72 HE-111 a while back and I was nothing but excited about the outcome. The thing I like about that particular brand is the blue makes it easy to tell where I have already covered.
Good Luck !
Ya know… I have never done this and never had a problem… I am probably just lucky… Or doing something wrong… I am not exactly a contest winning modeler.
I use liquid mask for large areas… making sure there is healthy overlap between the mask and the tape. Liquid mask is a lot cheaper than tamiya tape… I use the Tamiya tape almost exclusively on canopies because i can pretty much see through it to cut.